A lifetime of Islands: Island 412 - Bartraw, County Mayo

Thursday 28 June 2018

Island 412 - Bartraw, County Mayo

Bartraw is a small low lying grass covered tidal island located 6 miles to the west of the town of Westport in County Mayo, a mile east of the village of Leckanvy and on the southern side of Clew Bay. It is linked to the mainland by a 1 km long sand and pebble tombolo. For most of the length of the tombolo there is a large grass covered sand dune. However at the northern end there are a couple of sections, which are only comprised of pebbles, which are presumably covered at high spring tides and during storms, as there are no plants growing on these sections. The island is about 300 metres in diameter and the highest point on the island is 13 metres above sea level.

I visited on a sunny but breezy early evening in May and it was a popular place for local dog walkers. There is a large free car park at the landward end. There is a network of footpaths through the dunes and on the island itself. The tombolo's pebbles are nearly all small, rounded and a pleasing variety of colours, including a few that were light green.

Bartraw is part of the Clew Bay Special Area of Conservation (SAC). Clew Bay is famous for its many islands and 1981 it was described as follows in the National Heritage Inventory: Areas of Scientific Interest in Ireland:

"The classical drowned drumlin landscape showing the sea's erosional action on a drumlin swarm which was laid down by the second of advance of ice in the glacial period. Nowhere else is this type of landscape developed on such a scale nor with such variation."

Drumlins are long, smooth, oval and streamlined shaped hummocks or hills formed and shaped by ice sheets or glaciers while the ice was moving. They are usually composed of boulder clay or glacial till and most often found in large groups (as is the case in Clew Bay) known as fields or swarms. They often have a steeper side and a more tapered side.